Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Exodus 32: 7-14

The LORD said to Moses,
“Go down at once to your people
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,
for they have become depraved.
They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,
making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,
sacrificing to it and crying out,
‘This is your God, O Israel,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’
The LORD said to Moses,
“I see how stiff-necked this people is.
Let me alone, then,
that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them.
Then I will make of you a great nation.”

But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying,
“Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people,
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt
with such great power and with so strong a hand?
Why should the Egyptians say,
‘With evil intent he brought them out,
that he might kill them in the mountains
and exterminate them from the face of the earth’?
Let your blazing wrath die down;
relent in punishing your people. 
Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel,
and how you swore to them by your own self, saying,
‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky;
and all this land that I promised,
I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.'”
So the LORD relented in the punishment
he had threatened to inflict on his people.

Reflection

Moses goes down and see the people worshiping the golden calf.  He hears God’s anger and reasons with God reminding God that this was the same people he brought out of slavery.  He implores God to give the people another chance and God does. Do we talk with God like Moses did?  Do we challenge and negotiate with God?  This is type of communication with God is what we inherited from our Jewish ancestors and speaks of an intimate relationship, a personal one.  Use this time of Lent to talk with God and share with God your hopes, dreams, anger and pain.  Sometimes our pride, being “stiff-necked” gets us not to reach out to God even though God is always there.

Action

Let us take sometime today to have a conversation with God about our personal hopes, dreams, desires and frustrations.

Rev. Fr. James Lehman

Pastor of Holy Family American National Catholic Church